WORCESTER -- Prosecutors contend that two Fitchburg brothers accused of the 2009 deaths of two Fitchburg teens "snapped" and murdered them in cold blood, while their defense attorneys say the brothers acted in defense of themselves and one another against an onslaught of an angry mob.

Both sides presented their closing statements Wednesday in the trial of Orville Carrion, 27, and Jose Carrion, 32, who are each charged with two counts of murder and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the Sept. 6, 2009, deaths of Pedro Genoa, 17, and Nelson Geraldino, 18, outside the Carrions' 96 Mechanic St. apartment in Fitchburg following an after-hours party.

Assistant District Attorney John Bradley said the prosecution is not suggesting the Carrions had planned to kill the teens in advance in what he called an "unspeakable tragedy."

"We are suggesting that they snapped," he said. "That in the moment, they lost all sense of human decency."

E. Peter Parker, Orville Carrion's attorney, said the Carrions were fighting for their own lives.

"These brothers defended themselves and each other from their own deaths or serious bodily injury," Parker said. "And they did have serious bodily injury."

Jose Carrion's attorney, Elliot Weinstein, again invoked his description of a scene of "darkness, chaos and confusion," and suggested the jury did not have the full picture of what happened in the driveway of 96 Mechanic St.

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He said the Carrions were "outnumbered" by an unruly mob from Meadowbrook, a group of friends who had unique hand symbols.

"The more Hector Pagan and Ronny Genao insisted they were all just friends, the more it seemed like they were more than just friends," Parker said.

He said the group would have "had each others' backs" in a fight, and would have lied to law enforcement to protect one another.

"Defense counsel would have you believe they were attacked by an armed, angry, drunken mob," Bradley said. "Yet here they are, and two teenagers are dead."

He said it's simple -- Orville Carrion had a gun, Jose Carrion had a knife, and Pedro Genao and Geraldino were shot and stabbed to death. Each shot and stab was preceded by a decision to carry it out, he said.

Bradley said witness testimony showed Jose Carrion was already riled up about parking at 96 Mechanic St. earlier in the night. Paired with his brother Orville, who had brought a loaded gun and second loaded magazine with him out drinking, this set the stage for the deaths of the teens, he said.

Bradley suggested the Carrions didn't want to deal with teenagers talking back to them, and that's when they snapped, with Jose Carrion first punching Geraldino and then taking a knife to him.

Geraldino was stabbed twice in the chest and three times in the back, with one wound connected to a long slash down his back, Bradley said. He suggested Jose Carrion had stabbed him in the chest first, and then as Geraldino was trying to get away from him, he chased after him with the knife, slashing and stabbing him in the back.

He said Ronny Genao didn't use the machete until after Orville Carrion had fired the first shot at Geraldino, and that Ronny Genao suffered three gunshot wounds to the back of his legs and buttocks when he ran from Orville Carrion afterward.

"It's a lot easier to shoot somebody who's defenseless, like Nelson Geraldino, or running away, like Ronny Genao, but it's a lot harder when someone is running up on you with a big machete," Bradley said.

Although the defense has said Pedro Genao was outside and involved in the fighting from the start, Bradley said he was slaughtered by the Carrions when he left the house after hearing gunfire, being shot in the stomach and stabbed twice in the back.

Weinstein said the prosecution "has built its case on stories," and that each witness it brought up had a different version of what they saw, and their stories changed multiple times.

He said Ronny Genao lied "over and over and over again" to law enforcement and to the jury, and that he refused to cooperate without a promise of immunity from prosecution for his role in the melee.

"It was he who initiated the use deadly force, when he attacked Orville from behind with that machete," Weinstein said.

Parker said the prosecution set out to prove the Carrions engaged in a killing spree that early morning, but that testimony and evidence failed to support that.

He said Ronny Genao's story was "deliberately calculated" to make him look good, to make his friends from Meadowbrook Village appear to be bystanders, to make Geraldino appear outnumbered by the Carrions, and to remove his little brother's involvement in the fighting.

"It may have taken Ronny Genao a few years to get his story straight, but it didn't hold together well, did it?" Parker said.

"Scratch the surface of anything Ronny Genao said, anything, and you will find it's directly contradicted by any other evidence," he added.

Parker said Orville Carrion was concerned for Pedro Genao, and that he waited at the scene for police to arrive and turned in his gun. He said these are not the actions of someone "who went on a killing spree."

"These are the actions of someone telling the truth," Parker said.

Both Parker and Weinstein suggested that crime scene evidence left unanalyzed would have proven to corroborate Orville Carrion's version of events. Weinstein said it was up to prosecutors to request DNA comparison analysis be conducted on the myriad blood stains found at the scene, but they did not.

Bradley asked the jury to find the brothers guilty of first degree murder with either or both of the theories of premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. The defense attorneys asked the jury to acquit their clients on the grounds of self-defense and defense of each other.

Other possible verdicts are second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter; the defense had also requested involuntary manslaughter but Judge Daniel Wrenn denied that option prior to closing statements. The jury must also determine whether the brothers acted in a joint venture in the crimes.

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